United States

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1795102764

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-179770

Document type:: Monograph

Title:: United States

Place of publication:: Washington

Publisher:: Gov. Pr. Off.

Year of publication:: 1928

Scope:: VII, 112 S

Digitisation:: 2022

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Economic considerations concerning the maintenance and growth of the industry

Collection:: Economics Books

14 © COSTS OF PRODUCING SUGAR BEETS Table 77 (p. 98) presents information obtained by asking the sugar- beet farmers whose costs were studied how many acres they could plant to sugar beets without great change in the type or method of farming. These estimates of possible increase in the present acre- age range from 59 per cent in Nebraska to 271 per cent in Ohio. The figures indicate the possible increase in acreage in the sugar-beet sections. The commission’s study showed that in areas where sugar beets are now grown, the most strongly competing crops are alfalfa and other hay, beans, small grains, potatoes, and corn. In Colorado and Utah alfalfa is the strongest competitor with beets. However, alfalfa fits in well in a rotation system with sugar beets, particularly where it is turned under and followed by a grain crop and then by one or two crops of beets. In the Michigan sugar-beet area, the bean crop is the strongest competitor with sugar beets. The particular advantage of beans over beets is the smaller labor requirement of the bean crop. Because of the encouragement of diseases, continuous cropping of beans is bad cultural practice in much the same way as following beets with beets. Beans are well suited for rotation with beets either preceding or following the beet crop. In the western areas, in addition to alfalfa, potatoes and small grains are strongly competing crops. Certain diseases, notably the scab, affects both potatoes and sugar beets and for this reason it is bad cultural practice to follow one with the other in the rotation. Outside of the present sugar-beet areas, the potential competition of other crops is much stronger than within such areas. So far as merely the physical and biological conditions of plant growth are con- cerned, sugar beets could be sucessfully produced over a large portion of the Corn Belt. However, returns from corn and corn products have been high enough as compared with returns from sugar beets to virtually exclude this latter crop from the Corn Belt. Much the same thing has been true of the areas primarily devoted to spring wheat. In the competition between sugar beets and other corps the most important factor is the large labor requirements of the sugar- beet crop. Studies in the Corn Belt of corn harvested from the stand- ing stalk have shown that the man labor requirements varied from 14.5 to 25.6 hours per acre; * and the commission’s study of sugar- beet labor requirements showed an average expenditure of 46 hours of direct labor per acre on machine operations in addition to an out- lay of $23 per acre for contract labor. Wheat presents an even greater contrast to sugar beets in this respect. Studies in the spring wheat and winter wheat belts show a total man labor requirement varying from 5.8 to 17.5 hours per acre. More than half of the heavy labor requirements on beets is hand labor performed either by contract labor or by the labor of the farmer and his family. The relatively small amount of such labor available in the United States constitutes one of the most important limitations to the expansion of sugar-beet acreage. A further limitation to the expansion of the industry exists in the ne- cessity for additional capital investment forspecial farm equipment and for heavy investment for factories. Sugar beets are grown in rows 16 to 22 inches apart and a special drill is used for planting the seed. The € U. 8. Department of Agriculture, Bull. 1000, 1921, p. 6.

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